poetry analysis first draft

Paige Borowski

10/4/19

Lit and Performance IB

“Runaway” by Greg Kurstin and Tanner Schneider made me feel sad. I felt so much emotion when listening to this song. When taking away the music and transforming the song into a poem, I could see why. The subject of the poem is constantly lonely and always on the run. She has a hard time loving someone. It came suddenly clear. This poem attempts to tell readers that self love matters more than love from others. 

In the poem, there’s a line that reads, “Used to fall head over feet But everyone I loved deceived me.” That shows that she put so many people ahead of herself. She tried to make their love the most important but it did nothing but hurt her. She suffers from loving others. If she loved herself first, she would be happier.

The line, “You could say my shadow is the only friend of mine.” It shows that she doesn’t have many friends. The only friend she has is the one that’s a part of her. It’s the only friend she can truly love without being hurt. It’s basically loving yourself, right? She is happiest when she does. 

The line I find most important and one you really have to look into is, “I was lookin' for love, in the fire, in the flames. But the only way to love, is to get yourself burned.” To me, it shows that love is hurtful. That you can only love another if you are hurting yourself in the process. It’s putting all your feelings aside to make someone happy. In doing so, you get beat down and lost. There’s no happiness in loving someone else more than yourself.